Ethnography

Anthony Kwame Harrison

Apr 2018 · Oxford University Press

About this ebook

Ethnography familiarizes readers with ethnographic research and writing traditions through detailed discussions of ethnography's history, exploratory design, representational conventions, and standards of evaluation. Responding to the proliferation of ethnography both within and outside of academia, in this book, Anthony Kwame Harrison grounds ethnographic practices within the anthropological principles of cultural awareness, thick description, and embodied understanding. At the same time, the book introduces new frameworks for grasping ethnography's simultaneous strategic and improvisational imperatives, as well as for appreciating its experimental conventions of social science and humanistic research reporting. Central to this process, Ethnography introduces the concept of ethnographic comportment-defined as an historically informed politics of position that impacts ethnographers' conduct and disposition-which serves as a standard for gauging and engaging ethnography throughout the text. Part research primer, writing guide, and assessment handbook, Ethnography provides readers with a comprehensive introduction to one of the richest and most expansive traditions of qualitative research.

About the author

Anthony Kwame Harrison is a cultural anthropologist teaching in the Department of Sociology and program in Africana Studies at Virginia Tech, where he serves as the Gloria D. Smith Professor. His research examines processes of racialization in spaces of leisure and popular music scenes. He is the author of Hip Hop Underground: The Integrity and Ethics of Racial Identification (Temple University Press, 2009) and has published widely on qualitative research methodologies. A winner of numerous teaching awards, Kwame teaches graduate level qualitative research methods and the history of sociological thought.